Results 9,421-9,440 of 49,836 for speaker:Stephen Donnelly
- Select Committee on Health: Public Health (Tobacco Products and Nicotine Inhaling Products) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (12 Oct 2023)
Stephen Donnelly: One of the things we are already looking at is banning vaping in cars with children in them, as we have for cigarettes. I would like to engage with the Deputy further and we will incorporate that into the thinking on the new Bill as well. I thank the Deputy for that.
- Select Committee on Health: Public Health (Tobacco Products and Nicotine Inhaling Products) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (12 Oct 2023)
Stephen Donnelly: I thank members for sharing their views. I am not going to slow down banning vapes for children. It is a simple reality, however, that if we were to bring in some of the measures today or in this Bill around flavours, disposables and point of sale, which I will be bringing in and it is great to hear there will be support in this regard, we would delay banning vapes for children by at least...
- Select Committee on Health: Public Health (Tobacco Products and Nicotine Inhaling Products) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (12 Oct 2023)
Stephen Donnelly: I am fully in favour of banning disposable vapes and we are going to do so. The Minister of State, Deputy Smyth, as the Deputy noted, has completed a public consultation. He has come at it from environmental grounds and I agree with those grounds. These things are a scourge. I am coming at it from a public health perspective. I believe they are targeting children and young people. We...
- Select Committee on Health: Public Health (Tobacco Products and Nicotine Inhaling Products) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (12 Oct 2023)
Stephen Donnelly: I appreciate that and I wish that were true, and I asked the same question when we looked at the Deputy's amendment. The clear advice I have is that regulating to give the Government or the Minister the power to do it under regulations would, unfortunately, require the same notification.
- Select Committee on Health: Public Health (Tobacco Products and Nicotine Inhaling Products) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (12 Oct 2023)
Stephen Donnelly: Not anything Deputy-----
- Select Committee on Health: Public Health (Tobacco Products and Nicotine Inhaling Products) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (12 Oct 2023)
Stephen Donnelly: No, we do the notification as part of the legislative process. For example, we had to notify for the measures that are in this Bill, which is why we can now proceed with it.
- Select Committee on Health: Public Health (Tobacco Products and Nicotine Inhaling Products) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (12 Oct 2023)
Stephen Donnelly: No, it is not.
- Select Committee on Health: Public Health (Tobacco Products and Nicotine Inhaling Products) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (12 Oct 2023)
Stephen Donnelly: Yes, but that is exactly the point. Let us say we are back here in eight months' time, if we do this now, we have to pause this Bill for eight months. That is exactly the point and I will not pause this Bill for eight months. We have to get this through. I know the Deputy is acting in good faith on this amendment. I accept her bona fides in this regard. I have read the amendment and I...
- Select Committee on Health: Public Health (Tobacco Products and Nicotine Inhaling Products) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (12 Oct 2023)
Stephen Donnelly: I am sorry for cutting across the Deputy but that is not what I said. I said the advice I have is that it needs to be more than 12 months. I am very open to discussing with, and listening to, colleagues as to what they think an appropriate time is. With respect, that is what I said.
- Select Committee on Health: Public Health (Tobacco Products and Nicotine Inhaling Products) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (12 Oct 2023)
Stephen Donnelly: The advice I have is that the one thing we can do without notifying the EU is the review. That is why I am recommending that and I will come back with an amendment on Report Stage, whether it is two years, two and a half years, three years or whatever colleagues think. It is the only bit because our doing a review does not impact on the requirements of the Single Market.
- Select Committee on Health: Public Health (Tobacco Products and Nicotine Inhaling Products) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (12 Oct 2023)
Stephen Donnelly: I am always very wary of proposing things live but I take Deputy Shortall's point about three years potentially being too long and Deputy Lahart's point about the possibility of dividing it up. The most important part of this legislation to me is protecting children. There are other pieces to this as well. Putting barriers in place to prevent children vaping, for all the reasons we all...
- Select Committee on Health: Public Health (Tobacco Products and Nicotine Inhaling Products) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (12 Oct 2023)
Stephen Donnelly: What I am saying very clearly to colleagues is that were we to accept this amendment, we could not ban the selling of vapes to children for at least another six months. We would be back here with this Bill in eight months' time, having lost eight months of protecting children. I fully agree we are going to do it. Under no circumstances should we wait for eight months to protect children.
- Select Committee on Health: Public Health (Tobacco Products and Nicotine Inhaling Products) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (12 Oct 2023)
Stephen Donnelly: Members have just delayed the banning of vapes to children by about eight months. Congratulations. Extraordinary work. This is some of the most cynical politics I have seen Deputy Shortall engage in. This is children's health we are talking about and she has been around this place long enough to understand European law. It is deeply cynical.
- Select Committee on Health: Public Health (Tobacco Products and Nicotine Inhaling Products) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (12 Oct 2023)
Stephen Donnelly: Members have just tried to delay the banning of the sale of vapes to children.
- Select Committee on Health: Public Health (Tobacco Products and Nicotine Inhaling Products) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (12 Oct 2023)
Stephen Donnelly: How extraordinary.
- Select Committee on Health: Public Health (Tobacco Products and Nicotine Inhaling Products) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (12 Oct 2023)
Stephen Donnelly: How extraordinary. That is what Deputy Shortall just tried to do.
- Select Committee on Health: Public Health (Tobacco Products and Nicotine Inhaling Products) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (12 Oct 2023)
Stephen Donnelly: She should be ashamed of herself. She is playing politics with children's health. That is what she is doing.
- Select Committee on Health: Public Health (Tobacco Products and Nicotine Inhaling Products) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (12 Oct 2023)
Stephen Donnelly: She has been here long enough to know. She is putting children's health at risk through cynical politics.
- Select Committee on Health: Public Health (Tobacco Products and Nicotine Inhaling Products) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (12 Oct 2023)
Stephen Donnelly: No.
- Select Committee on Health: Public Health (Tobacco Products and Nicotine Inhaling Products) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (12 Oct 2023)
Stephen Donnelly: May I respond to that?